104 FLORA HOMCEOPATHICA. 



recommends it as an effectual remedy for most of the 

 chronic diseases affecting the eye, particularly amaurosis, 

 cataract, and opacity of the cornea, proceeding from various 

 causes. He likewise found it of great use in nodes, nocturnal 

 pains, ulcers, caries, indurated glands, serpiginous eruptions, 

 melancholy, and palsy. The Baron himself, who had for two 

 years suffered much from a violent contusion of his eye, took 

 this remedy, which he soon found occasioned a severe lancinatin 

 pain in the part affected; this he considered as a favourable 

 omen in the specific action of the plant, an opinion which was 

 afterwards confirmed in a great number of patients. Two cases 

 of amaurosis, three of cataract, and seven of affections of the 

 cornea, we are told, were either entirely cured or generally 

 benefited by the exhibition of this remedy; several cases 

 proving its success in the other disorders which we have 

 noticed above. Many German physicians have since tried the 

 effects of this medicine in diseases of the eyes, and with success. 

 Of these we may mention Guldbrand, Hotz, Mohrenheim. 

 Several others, however, bear testimony of its inefficacy in these 

 diseases, as Schmucker, Bergius, and Richter, who increased 

 the dose of this vegetable even beyond that directed by Storck 

 ( Woodv. Med. Bot., vol. iii. p. 400). 



Description.— Pulsatilla nigricans is perennial, flowers in 

 May, and a second time in August or September. The root 

 is thick, short, and sends off several strong fibres. The fiower- 

 stcm is smooth, beset with soft hairs, near the top furnished 

 with a lancinated involucrum, and rises about six or eight 



inches in height. The leaves are radical, bipinnated. Segments 

 narrow, short, linear, and of a glaucous green colour. It has 

 no calyx. The petals are six, oblong, hairy, of a blackish-purple 

 colour, and their apices are turned backwards. The filaments 

 are numerous, slender, about half the length of the petals, and 

 furnished with yellow antherae. The germens are numerous, 

 collected into a bundle, and supplied with long styles, termi- 

 nated by tapering, blunt stigmata. The seeds are nlaced on 



